I’m completely and hopelessly in love with animation and drawing. It’s like a passion that keeps evolving, like finding an extra nugget in your fries, but every time you reach in, there’s another surprise waiting.
Back in my days as an editor at the ABC, I was part of the first team to bring video to mobile phones in Australia. Cutting-edge stuff, problem-solving and making fixes! Somewhere along the way, I caught a different kind of bug: the drawing bug. (It is highly contagious, and there is no known cure.)
At the time, I had just wrapped up my Fine Arts degree in Communications Design, a fancy way of saying “I know how to make things look cool.” This was 2002. YouTube didn’t exist, social media wasn’t a thing, and I was on the fast track to becoming a computer graphics bananamator - because being an animator means turning doodles into something magical, even if it starts on a meeting notepad!
As Christmas approached, I scoured the internet for places to level up my drawing skills. One name kept popping up: Korea. So, obviously, I had to go.
I quickly realized that illustration alone wouldn’t cut it, I needed to dive into animation. The animators I met were fully dedicated, living and breathing movement, timing, and expression. Their passion was contagious, and I knew I had to be part of it.
So, I packed my bags, landed in Seoul, and found a comic book academy. And let me tell you, instant reality check. I thought I knew something about drawing. Turns out, I knew nothing. Absolutely nothing. (Except that I was about to take three steps back just to move one step forward.)
Naturally, being a completely sane and reasonable person, I took their entrance test while on holiday. And got accepted. Because that’s what people do on vacation, right?
Sitting in those classrooms, surrounded by walls covered in jaw-dropping comic pages, I had a moment of clarity: There was no going back. I had to sell everything, move to Korea, and finish what I started. Just to hold a rabbit in two hands. (If you don’t get that reference, you haven’t lived in the animation trenches yet.)
Fast forward four of the best years of my life, drawing every day, training under phenomenal teachers, working in an animation studio, and teaching English on the side to survive. But I still wasn’t done.
In 2010, I returned to Australia and thought, "You know what would be even crazier?"
A Master's Degree in Animation.
Because clearly, I hadn’t climbed the mountain high enough. I needed to tame the beast. Who does a Master’s in animation, anyway? A completely unhinged person who loves drawing, that’s who.
SooOOOooo, what am I doing now? Well, after managing a boutique animation studio for 10 years (before COVID came in like a wrecking ball), I now spend my time deep in the world of open-source animation tools and game engines.
Inkscape Vectors & UX Team (because vector graphics are life)
Discord Moderator for OpenToonz Development (because someone has to keep the chaos in check)
Grease Pencil Testing for Blender (because 2D in 3D is the future)
Developing a deep, nerdy love for the Godot game engine
**Freelance creative madman **
And most importantly, spending time with my beautiful partner (who somehow puts up with all of this.)
Drawing is more than a skill, it’s a way to see, think, and connect with the world. I’m incredibly grateful to live my life through the language of drawing.
And if you’ve read this far, congratulations, you’re probably an animation nerd too. Welcome to this beautiful mess of life. It truly is wonderful.
